Was listening to preproman's new 800s tonight and noticed they don't sound like they do (so sweet) until you put some power to them. Low level listening sounded thin. But the nicest thing about them were how much better the black paint made them look. The silver make them look more like a helmet. The black looks like a high tech piece of gear that they are. Beautiful.

First attempt at foam modding took "too much" of what I liked about the HD800 away.

Second mods I tried were the "Inner Fidelity Anax" template and I currently run those (without dust covers) plus the stock cable re-terminated to 4-pin XLR (thanks to purrin modding my cable at the last Bay Area Meet).

In fact, at the last Bay Area Meet (2012)- I tried to set up a "station" so that people could hear Benchmark DAC1/DAC1 amp vs. DAC1/TTVJ Apex Butte amp vs. DAC1/Apex Arete amp vs. DAC1/Apex Peak tube amp (with a couple of tubes to play with):

This Bay Area Meet (2013 Edition) I'm going to set up a rig to help people see how different combos of DAC/Amp can influence the sound.

I would actually twist the argument on its head and say cable modification/choice should be the FIRST thing you do - because otherwise you are not accurately *hearing* the HD800s or your source or your amp. This goes for all cables - power, interconnect, umbilical - not just headphone cables. Once you have found the most revealing cables you can find (to your years) - and they form a synergy across your entire playback chain - then and only then can you swap components in and out and hear them and judge them and decide which to keep. I'm sorry but if you're running muddy, smearing, compressing cables from the fanciest amp and source in town into your HD800s, the music you hear is going to be plagued by issues that have NOTHING to do with any of the components and you are going to make inaccurate assumptions and choices about the recording and the entire playback chain.

On the subject of mods, I can only give my most enthusiastic endorsement to Stefan Audio Art's current HD800 modifications, which involve removal of key resonating surfaces within the headphone assembly as well as hard-wiring of their cable directly to the driver. I'm surprised no one here is talking about the effect of Senn's crappy connectors on the sound of the phones.

I would actually twist the argument on its head and say cable modification/choice should be the FIRST thing you do - because otherwise you are not accurately *hearing* the HD800s or your source or your amp. This goes for all cables - power, interconnect, umbilical - not just headphone cables. Once you have found the most revealing cables you can find (to your years) - and they form a synergy across your entire playback chain - then and only then can you swap components in and out and hear them and judge them and decide which to keep. I'm sorry but if you're running muddy, smearing, compressing cables from the fanciest amp and source in town into your HD800s, the music you hear is going to be plagued by issues that have NOTHING to do with any of the components and you are going to make inaccurate assumptions and choices about the recording and the entire playback chain.

On the subject of mods, I can only give my most enthusiastic endorsement to Stefan Audio Art's current HD800 modifications, which involve removal of key resonating surfaces within the headphone assembly as well as hard-wiring of their cable directly to the driver. I'm surprised no one here is talking about the effect of Senn's crappy connectors on the sound of the phones.

I'm interested in the hard-wiring mod. How to get in contact with Stefan to get a quote?

Not sure if that was sarcastic but modding components is surely necessary. I have spent the time to mod mine or had them built/modded for me to my specifications for wiring, transformers, connectors, caps, resistors, tubes, etc. This is not as hard as it might seem. Once you've settled on a component it can (almost) always be made better.

I would actually twist the argument on its head and say cable modification/choice should be the FIRST thing you do - because otherwise you are not accurately *hearing* the HD800s or your source or your amp. This goes for all cables - power, interconnect, umbilical - not just headphone cables. Once you have found the most revealing cables you can find (to your years) - and they form a synergy across your entire playback chain - then and only then can you swap components in and out and hear them and judge them and decide which to keep. I'm sorry but if you're running muddy, smearing, compressing cables from the fanciest amp and source in town into your HD800s, the music you hear is going to be plagued by issues that have NOTHING to do with any of the components and you are going to make inaccurate assumptions and choices about the recording and the entire playback chain.

On the subject of mods, I can only give my most enthusiastic endorsement to Stefan Audio Art's current HD800 modifications, which involve removal of key resonating surfaces within the headphone assembly as well as hard-wiring of their cable directly to the driver. I'm surprised no one here is talking about the effect of Senn's crappy connectors on the sound of the phones.

Thanks, I think that is an interesting point. I have some good power cables, but my interconnects and other cables certainly could be upgraded. That's probably what I'll do next.